


A Game of War

by Hallianna



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Card Games, F/M, Humor, Humorous Ending, Shakarian - Freeform, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 17:28:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5300282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hallianna/pseuds/Hallianna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was no way Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian could just play a card game.  The stakes are too high for that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Game of War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thievinghippo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thievinghippo/gifts).



> Based off this Tumblr prompt from @thievinghippo: What about Shepard teaching Garrus a card game like "War" using the poker table in the observation lounge? 
> 
> Needless to say, I took more than a few liberties.

Garrus leaned back and looked at the pile of cards near Shepard.  “I think you cheated.”

Shepard wiggled her fingers at him.  “I thought the galaxy’s best turian sniper didn't miss a thing.”  She reached over and put a hand on the deck in the middle of the table.  “Fine, we’ll go again.”

His hand landed on hers, fingers gently curling around her wrist.  “Ha, I don't think so.  I'll shuffle and deal and you will sit there and watch.  And then you will teach me this game again.”  Garrus snatched the deck out from under her hand and began shuffling.  “And it's the galaxy’s best sniper.  Being turian has nothing to do with it.”

Shepard leaned back in her chair, trying not to smile.  Garrus hated it when someone called him competitive so she avoided the word, hell the implication.  But watching her turian boyfriend shuffle cards clearly not meant for hands with less than five fingers proved how bent he was on winning even a damn card game.  “Garrus, this is a game of chance.  There's no strategy, no maneuvering.  That's exactly why I wanted to teach it to you.  Leave the actual war games - pun aside - for fighting the Reapers.  This is just friendly.”

Garrus set the shuffled deck down in the middle of the table and eyed her closely.  “Friendly, huh?” That blue gaze fixed her to the seat and suddenly she felt hot, like her clothes were too tight.

She swallowed hard, nodded.  “What else would it be?”

He split the deck evenly and placed a stack of cards in front of her, fingers lingering near hers.  “You tell me, Shepard.”

 

* * *

“Seriously, how are you winning?”

Shepard flipped over her last card, a ten to Garrus’s seven, and chuckled.  “Commander’s luck?”

He leaned back and folded his arms over his chest, an impressive feat since his new armor was even bulkier than the old set.  “I call it cheating.”

She held her arms out to him, face the perfect picture of innocence.  “Check my sleeves.  No cards.”  When he just stared at her, she thrust her arms forward.  “Go ahead.”

He didn’t budge, but now there was a gleam in his eyes.  “Is this for my benefit, or yours?”

“You tell me.  We’re just playing cards, Garrus and I’m very nicely letting you soothe your ego by checking my sleeves.  I’m not the one getting my ass kicked at a very simple card game.”

That got him moving.  A serpentine slide of his spine had him leaning over the table, hands hovering over hers.  She saw information fly across his visor and tried not to smirk.   _His flirting game’s gotten better but I see you, Garrus….reading my heartbeat and oxygen intake.  Good try, but you don’t rattle me.  I’ve headbutted Krogan clan lords and stared down Reapers_.

But damn if he wasn’t trying to shake her.  “Care to up the stakes?” he said, low voice now deeper as he ran gloved talons over the thin skin on the insides of her arms.

The smirk now blossoming on her face drew his gaze and she stared back, unblinking.  “I’m assuming you have something in mind.”

“Definitely.”  He looked up and said, “EDI, lock the door and shade the windows.”  His attention drew back to her.  “The Commander and I need some privacy.”

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Esteban, you coming or what?”  Vega couldn’t hear the pilot’s reply, he was too far down the hallway.  He shook his head and reached out to yank on the door to the observation lounge and met with resistance.  He yanked again, both hands not wrapped around the door handle.  “What the hell?”

“The observation lounge is currently inaccessible, Lieutenant,” EDI said.  “If you and Lieutenant Cortez are looking for an unoccupied space, I recommend the mess, as we are in between meal times.”

Steve came up behind him, a six pack in hand and a confused expression on his face.  “Did EDI just say we can’t get into the observation lounge?

James straightened and turned to his friend.  “Yeah.  It’s weird, right?”

Steve bent to examine the door.  “EDI, is everything okay?

“Certainly.  The observation lounge is simply inaccessible at this time.  Please check back in - “ EDI paused and Steve had the eerie sense she was calculating something.  Or listening to someone’s command.  “Roughly two hours.”

Vega shrugged.  “Yeah, okay.”  He shook his head and motioned Steve back down the hallway.  “Looks like we’re hitting the mess.”

“That doesn’t strike you as odd?”

Another shrug.  “Maybe Buggy’s holed up in there, dreaming up new ways to destroy the Reapers.”  He slung an arm around Steve’s neck.  “Besides, this means you and me have the mess to ourselves and I’m starving.”

“Color me shocked.”

“I know, right?”

 

* * *

 

**3 hours later**

“Is something wrong?”

Kaidan stood in the doorway to the observation lounge, his head swiveling back and forth.  “No.”  He pointed to the chair near Liara.  “But wasn’t that chair always in the other corner?”

“Is there a disturbance in the force?”

Kaidan looked behind him as Tali approached.  “Very funny.  Remind me not to introduce you to any other significant movies from Earth until you promise to stop saying all their tag lines.”

She patted him on the shoulder as she stepped around him.  “Too late. I’ve already watched Terminator and Back to the Future.  Humans certainly had a….creative imagination when it came to science and machinery.”

“Hey,” he protested as he finally moved out of the doorway and took a seat beside Liara.  “Don’t knock those old movies.  They’re classics, made way before we humans ever realized there was life elsewhere.”

Liara gave him a sympathetic look.  “She’s just teasing, Kaidan.”  She suddenly shifted in her seat.  “Ouch, what - “  She reached under her and pulled out a half-bent playing card.  “What is this doing here?”

“Probably Vega and Cortez.  You know what happens when Vega gets drunk and starts insisting we all play strip poker.”  Tali ran a hand down her suit.  “He doesn’t seem to understand that this doesn’t come off.”

Kaidan chuckled.  “You can’t blame him for trying.  His enthusiasm is….well, it’s something.”

“So is this.”  A pair of black underwear was hanging from Liara’s fingertip.  “Do I want to know?”

 

* * *

 

Shepard rolled over and flung a limp arm around Garrus.  “I just had a horrible thought.”

“What’s that?”

She propped herself up on one arm and stared down at him.  “We didn’t leave anything down there, did we?”

Garrus put a hand behind his head and pulled her closer with his other arm.  “Other than a chair we didn’t bother to move back, not that I know of.”

“Good.”  She sighed and relaxed against him.  The quiet hum of the air intake was the only sound in the room for a few long minutes.  

And then Shepard bolted upright, dropped the sheet (and any pretense towards modesty), and leaned over the bed.  Garrus watched her frantically comb through their clothes and then look back him, wide-eyed.  “Oh, shit.”

“Problem?”

“I might have left something in the observation lounge.”

He sat up, curiosity getting the better of him.  “Which is?”

Shepard grimaced.  “The only thing I had left on before you tried to drag me to the elevator.”

Garrus laughed and Shepard punched him on the arm.  “It’s not funny!”

He kept laughing. “Can you imaging Vega finding those?  You’d break him.”

“Not helping, Garrus.  We have to go back down - “

“We?”  He laid back down, still chuckling.  “I don’t wear underwear, Shepard.”  He made a “go on” motion with his hand.  “I’ll be here when you get back.”

She huffed, jamming her legs into pants and throwing on a tank top and hoodie.  “And here I didn’t think you were a sore loser.”

The satisfied look on his face almost made her say fuck it and get back into bed.  “Oh, I'm sore but I _definitely_ didn’t lose that last round.”

 


End file.
